What Is 'Stability Stacking'? The Career Trend Millennials Are Using to Beat Job Insecurity

'Stability stacking' is a career strategy in which workers build several sources of security at once so they do not depend on one employer. Glassdoor, the US job site, introduced the term on 15 September 2026 in a report that says millennials are layering skills, income, career options, and networks to guard against layoffs and AI disruption.

The aim, the report says, is that no single job, boss, or industry disruption 'can knock you flat.' It is done while staying employed, not as a wholesale career change.

Millennials, whose youngest members turn 30 this year, were 47% more likely than other generations to mention job insecurity in Glassdoor reviews and 54% more likely to mention layoffs.

How Stability Stacking Works

Skills come first. The report points to AI-related training, and Upwork's Future Workforce Index 2026 found freelancers doing AI work on its marketplace earn 34% more per hour than those who do not use AI.

Options are second, meaning a sideways move within a field or a qualification pursued alongside a job. One Glassdoor Community member, 39, wrote of starting nursing school: 'It's scary, but I need the change.'

Third is financial security through what the report calls 'income stacking', meaning consulting, freelancing, or a side hustle alongside the day job. Income stacking protects a bank account, it says, while stability stacking as a whole targets career longevity and psychological security.

Fourth is network and reputation. Glassdoor senior economist Chris Martin told Business Insider that it can mean contacts in an adjacent or different field, for use if jobs in a worker's own industry dry up.

Why Millennials Are Turning to It

Two yes-or-no Glassdoor Community polls supply the headline figures, which the company attributes to millennial workers. From 4 to 11 August 2026, 76% of more than 1,805 US professionals said they were questioning their career path. From 27 July to 4 August, 68% of more than 2,425 said they had delayed a major life milestone over career uncertainty. The report does not say which milestones.

An analysis of 52,916 Glassdoor reviews from January to June 2026 found millennials mentioned burnout 44% more than other generations, rising to 76% for millennial women.

Millennials make up 35% of the US labour force and more than one in four executives, yet feel less secure than workers a decade younger, the report says. Real earnings growth for older millennials has slowed to nothing.

Martin said millennials 'experienced a couple really big rug-pull moments in their career.' According to reports, layoffs overall are low, but major employers have made cuts, many citing AI, and some flattened management layers as millennials moved up.

Janel Abrahami, a career strategist cited by Glassdoor who practises stability stacking herself, told the outlet that for millennials 'it feels like we should have experienced some sort of payoff by now.'

A mechanical engineer on Glassdoor Community disputed that the pressure is unique, writing that every generation has coped with wars, recessions, and plagues.

Where Side Hustles Fit In

LendingTree polled 2,049 US consumers from 3 to 6 March 2026. It found 45% of millennials had a side hustle, down from 55% in 2022, and that side hustlers earned an average of $1,242 (£927) a month. Some 61% said life would be unaffordable without it, and 20% started because of job insecurity or layoffs.

ZipRecruiter research published in March found 49% of job seekers with a side hustle had rejected a job offer, against 32.2% of those without. Among workers expecting a layoff, 18.5% wanted a side hustle but lacked one, against 5.6% of those who felt secure.

Interest extends beyond millennials. Abrahami said she had met Gen X and baby boomer workers on a coaching course who were interested in the idea.

Theresa Burnley, 65, of Milford, New Hampshire, launched protein-bite brand Circ in 2023 as a side project while owning baked goods manufacturer Wiley Road Foods. She told Entrepreneur that more than $1M (£747,000) went into development. Burnley left Wiley Road Foods at the end of 2024. Circ took about $2M (£1.5M) in revenue last year and is sold in more than 13,000 US retail locations.

What the Data Does Not Show

Glassdoor gives no figure for how many millennials are stability stacking, and the side hustle surveys record drawbacks too.

LendingTree found 69% of side hustlers would prefer one main source of income. Its chief consumer finance analyst, Matt Schulz, said 'even the most successful side hustles will have highs and lows,' which makes budgeting difficult.